1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a Fitting Machines and/or stationary exercise bicycles that are used in specialized bicycle shops for the purpose of simulating position of the rider on the bicycle, (either with power load generator or without). Such machines have movable parts attached to each other in some correlation to the Bottom Bracket thus creating/simulating the most desirable/proper position for the rider. Findings/results of such tests are used to set-up geometry of a real bike for each specific rider.
2. Description of Prior Art
Presently there are number of Fit Machines available on the market, all of them using rotating seat tube (around BB centre) for the adjustment of the Seat Tube Angle. Seat Tube angle is angle of the centre line of the Seat Tube, measured from the horizontal line drowns from the BB centre. Such rotating movement has the undesired byproduct of also rotating the saddle, which is attached to the rotating tube, around the BB Centre. This creates unnecessary work for the operator to adjust the saddle back to a perfect horizontal position after any change of the Seat Tube angle. The saddle horizontal, leveled position is a crucial part of the fitting process and must be maintained at all times, for correct fit and a future frame design. In process of adjusting the saddle back in a horizontal position, the saddle has to be unbolted from its holder, realigned, and re-bolted to the holder. Adjusting a saddle tilt also creates additional task—to note the position of the saddle on the holder after every seat tube angle adjustment. Present machines also utilize only one round seat tube, what also incorporate telescopic sliding seat holding part, and in any extending or contracting of saddle distance from the BB, saddle assembly needs to be aligned to the vertical plane of the machine.
Further more, even though the distance from the BB to the top of the saddle can be measured, actual horizontal distance of the saddle to the bottom bracket remains unknown, as there is no measuring device on such machines what would clearly determine saddle position in X and Y plane relative to the BB.
Present machines also usually don't have any kind of measuring devices or marks for Handlebar assembly positioning/reading in correlation to the BB, but rather tape or long ruler must be used to measure two-dimensional position, what creates impossibility to recreate the same position, or organize a drawing, as one of those parameters are missing, not measurable or have to be approximated.